Cooper: Offshore drilling is 'a bad deal'

ATLANTIC BEACH — N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper returned to the place where he vacationed in his youth and later brought his family, to deliver a message on offshore drilling.

In a 13-minute speech Thursday morning inside the Fort Macon Visitor’s Center before a receptive crowd of local, elected officials who came from as far as Nags Head and Kure Beach and as close by as Atlantic Beach, Morehead City and Emerald Isle, Cooper said the prospect of offshore drilling is a “threat looming over the coastline.”

The first-term, Democrat Governor then said he was “here to speak out and take action against it” to which he received the first of many boisterous rounds of applause.

Cooper summed up his administration’s stance on the proposed measure to explore and possibly drill off North Carolina’s coast in four emphatic words: “Not off our coast” to which the crowd erupted in a standing ovation.

Cooper’s words were in sync with Surf City Mayor Doug Medlin. Medlin, who is opposed to offshore drilling and whose town is dependent on tourism said drilling is “a chance we don’t need to take. We just can’t afford it.”

Medlin’s sentiments were echoed by Emerald Isle’s Mayor Eddie Barber who said an offshore accident had the potential to “mess up our pristine waters which would have an adverse effect on tourism.”

Emerald Isle’s summer-season population much like Surf City and other coastal communities swell by more than 10-fold over its 3,000 year-round residents.

The timing of Cooper’s speech and his appearance at the State Park coincide with a July 21 deadline imposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for elected officials, business leaders and environmental groups to express their concerns over seismic testing.

Many in attendance were representatives from educational and environmental groups such as the Coastal Federation, Crystal Coast Waterkeeper, UNC Institute of Marine Science, Citizens Protecting the Atlantic Coast and the N.C. Sea Grant Advisory Board.

Larry Baldwin, a Crystal Coast Waterkeeper member said he was pleased to hear the “strong manner” in which Cooper expressed his opposition but said now his focus will be on his Carteret County Commissioners who have not followed Cooper’s lead and instead still support offshore drilling, according to Baldwin.

“Our own Carteret County commissioners have not come out and stood with their county in my opinion,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said he hopes to open a dialog with his county elected officials and wishes to learn his commissioner’s “motivation” behind supporting offshore drilling.

Cooper, the former state attorney general, and former private-practice lawyer presented his case much like a closing argument inside a courtroom by saying offshore drilling would provide little economic reward when factoring in all the risk associated drilling and possible accidents. Cooper reminded the audience of the BP Petroleum Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 off in the Gulf of Mexico had total clean-up cost exceeding $60 billion — a figure Cooper said represents more than 2½ years of North Carolina state budget expenditures.

Cooper said North Carolina stakeholders are opposed to drilling saying that “more than 30 coastal communities in North Carolina have passed resolutions opposing offshore drilling. Nearly 200 businesses and nonprofits have come out against it. It is simply not worth for North Carolina.”

He also said North Carolina’s tourism industry in coastal counties generates more than $3 billion creating more than 30,000 jobs which deliver more than $300 million back to state and local coffers in the form of tax receipts.

Cooper took the audience and the discussion to the Nation’s Capital to reinforce his position by saying the “political climate in Washington, D.C. is such that they are slashing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department leaving fewer safeguards in place.”

Pine Knoll Shores residents Cheryl Gerhart and Susan Phillips who became acquainted with one another over their shared opposition to offshore drilling drove together to hear Cooper. Gerhart was happy to hear that the governor was working to keep the ocean clean and appreciated his “concern about the fishing and tourism industries,” Gerhart said.

Phillips who has lived in Pine Knoll Shores for more than 30 years took away four words from Cooper’s speech that made her smiling as she walked toward her parked car: “Not on our coast.”

Cooper closed his remarks by asking people to join him in his position stating “This place, this coastline, it is the heart of who we are."

Wilmington resident Dana Sargent, a Surfrider member from the Cape Fear Chapter of Wilmington and several other environmental groups felt it was important that state leaders such as Cooper publicly state their opposition to offshore drilling.

“The federal government has come out and said specifically that they are going to listen to the states. We felt it was important if our state came out. Our resources are vital to the tourism industry and all of our fishing industries and the hospitality industry. We thought it was vital that Gov. Cooper came out in strong opposition,” Sargent said.

Sargent also broached the subject of GenX, the chemical that has been found in samples taken from the Cape Fear, with the governor and informed him of her new group called Clean Cape Fear and told him her group was there to inform and help him with talking points and information.

Cooper completed his visit to the Crystal Coast with a stroll on the Oceanana Pier in Atlantic Beach with its owner Bud Cooper (no relation) and son Atlantic Beach Mayor A. B. “Trace” Cooper lll, and then the trio sat down to a North Carolina Down East Lunch inside the pier restaurant. The Governor dined on a shrimp burger, fries and a Diet Pepsi.

As the men walked the pier shaking hands with patrons and wishing fishermen good luck, Mayor Cooper gestured with his right hand sweeping over the wooden rail to the tea, blue ocean in the distance and said to the governor, “This is what we’re trying to protect.”

The governor nodded affirmatively.

Daily News Reporter Mike McHugh can be reached at 910-219-8455 or email mike.mchugh@jdnews.com.